5 Fandom Friday: Womances I Ship

A little late again this time but that’s because my level of procrastination has reached epic proportions. At least I’m not doing this on Thursday, though that’s still a possibility if I don’t stop taking breaks to check my cats. This week’s 5 Fandom Friday prompt is womances I ship in celebration of Galentine’s Day. I really don’t actually ship anything. It may be my sometimes crippling phobias of intimacy and commitment1 but I’m less interested in romantic interactions and more inclined to see how a character develops and connects with their friends and family and even foes. So I’ll just do my five favorite womances, because that’s actually super easy.

Tina Fey & Amy Poehler

I think it’s fitting to list Amy Poehler and Tina Fey first given that this is a sort of Galentine’s celebration. I really, really love Tina and Amy. I think they’re awesome and they have been since their time together on SNL. I like their movies, even Baby Mama. They’re both smart and funny and strong and they’re awesome people to have on the screen and behind the camera. Also, Liz Lemon and Leslie Knope are like the two competing aspects of my personality: the overachiever with a constant drive to do everything all of the time and the nerdy know-it-all that aims high but often misses the mark.

Roberta Martin, Tina Tercell, Sam Albertson & Chrissy DeWitt

Like most things ’90s I still pine for the movie that ruled my childhood summers, Now and Then. It was all about five girls, each unique and special in her own way and working through her own issues, and a summer that was spent exploring and learning and growing up. My two sisters and I, along with two of our friends from a family with whom we were very close, watched this movie so many times I’m pretty sure even now as adults you could put us all in a room and we could still recite it word for word. There were five of us so we each were assigned a character. I of course ended up as tomboyish Roberta2 though I secretly had hoped to be Sam, the writer. And there was young Brendan Fraser, total swoonage. Of course we tried to perform a seance in a cemetery. No one was brutally murdered in our neighborhood, and there were no graveyards nearby, but that didn’t stop us from trying in the park one night when we did the whole, “we’re staying with the others” trick on our parents. We ended up summoning a raccoon that rambled out of the underbrush and made us all wet ourselves and run home in fear where we confessed our duplicity to our parents. There’s probably a metaphor for my life in there somewhere.

Jessica Jones & Patricia Walker

Jessica Jones is one of my favorite Marvel characters. She’s gritty and real and isn’t perfect and barely even wants to be a superhero, but despite all of the loss in her life she’s still a decent person that does want to help people. Patricia, also know by her saccharine child star name Patsy, has experienced her own share of troubles in her life, but she’s famous and pretty and expected to be chipper and “on” all of the time, so sinking in to alcoholism and self pity isn’t really an option for her like it is for Jess. They both try to cope with what they’re given, and while they do butt heads when it comes to trying to keep each other safe and sane they still respect and understand one another in a way no one else does. What I love most about Jess and Patricia is that they may not be attached at the hip but they’re always there for each other. I’m sure we all have those best of friends that we don’t get to see nearly as often as we’d like but when we do it’s like you’d seen them yesterday.

Buffy Summers & Willow Rosenberg

Okay so I basically grew up on Buffy. I remember the agonizing wait for new episodes on the WB and rushing home from school in high school just to catch reruns on FX. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is easily my favorite Whedon offering, though really there’s like three tied for first. My twin sister and I always watched together, and we still have a marathon now and then. What I loved most about their relationship is that in the beginning Willow, shy nerd that she was, was shocked by Buffy’s offer of friendship. She had expected the pretty new girl to hang out with the popular kids that tortured her, but instead she discovered a side to Buffy she had never expected and instead of recoiling she rose to the occasion and decided to do all she could to help. And help she did. Where would the Scooby Gang have been without Willow’s smarts, her technical abilities, and even her craft? Willow is totally the Hermione of that trio. And much like Hermione, I’m glad she learned of her own strength and authority as the seasons progressed. Of course Buffy being the friend she was helped Willow along tremendously in that effort, but Willow helped keep Buffy even-keeled in return (most of the time, but we all have our bad days when we go about flaying people and almost ending the world). They both depended on each other but neither held it over the other’s head, and that’s the best kind of friendship.

Amy Schumer & Jennifer Lawrence

I don’t care if it makes me as basic as NaOH, I love Jennifer Lawrence. She’s quirky and inappropriate and awkward but still confident and kicks ass. Amy Schumer has a similar relatability built on her self-deprecating humor, but she’s wildly more inappropriate and I can totally dig it. I don’t agree with everything Amy says, and I think that can be said about pretty much any comic, but I still laugh hysterically at her stand up and show, Inside Amy Schumer. I just love J Law and A Schu together. Whether I’m cyberstalking Amy’s Instagram or imagining I’m with them making a human pyramid on the beach, I love seeing these two celebs just be cool together.